Delta blues: No commercial harvest of Yukon kings

There’s very bad news this week from the Yukon River Delta. News that personally affects the Yu’pik Eskimo villagers who live there — including my friends seen lunching at the Space Needle, whom I wrote about in an earlier post:

In keeping with the decline in numbers of last year’s harvest, “So few king salmon returned to the Yukon River this month that fishery managers ordered drastic cuts to subsistence fishing. There will be no commercial harvest,” notes Barry Eastabrook on Gourmet.com. Read the full story. It’s a sad one for those of us who love “the King of Kings,” but far more importantly, for the native villagers whose livelihoods are dependent on them.

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Bethany Jean Clement is The Seattle Times food writer. Her writing has also appeared in Best Food Writing, Food & Wine, Gourmet.com, Beard House, Town & Country, Edible Seattle, The Stranger and more. Follow her on Twitter: @BJeanClement.